A Sea of Stars Like Diamonds

By George Phillies and Jefferson Swycaffer

Since 1941, the National Fantasy Fan Federation (N3F) has supported fannish activities across America and around the world. One of those activities is our annual short story contest. In honor of this, our 75th anniversary, we present the winning stories from our 2015 contest. Our stories include classic hard science fiction and tales of magic, mystery, horror, and the supernatural, all branches of fantasy as envisioned by the N3F’s founders.
First Place
Sean Gillhoolley – The Bazaar of Forbidden Dreams

Second Place
Jeff Spitzer – The Last Ordeal of James Willoughby

Third Place
Kristin Janz – Fabiana’s Fairy Grandmother

Honorable Mention
Deborah Rocheleau – Track Invasion

plus fiction from other Neffers, including Angela Parson Myers, Kent McDaniel, Jefferson Swycaffer, and George Phillies. Jon Swartz gives us a special non-fiction supplement, a history of N3F publications.

• Language: English
• Publisher: George Phillies
• Release date: Dec 31, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370016747

George Phillies

George Phillies is a retired Professor of Physics. He also taught in Biochemistry and in Game Design. His scientific research is focused on polymer dynamics. He also writes science fiction novels and books on politics. Books by George Phillies include:FictionThis Shining SeaNine GeesMinutegirlsThe One WorldMistress of the WavesAgainst Three LandsEclipse, The Girl Who Saved the WorldAiry Castles All AblazeStand Against the LightInpreparation: Practical ExerciseBooks on Game Design SeriesContemporary Perspectives in Game Design (with Tom Vasel)Design Elements of Contemporary Strategy Games(with Tom Vasel)Stalingrad for Beginners - How to PlayStalingrad for Beginners - Basic TacticsDesigning Board Wargames - IntroductionBooks on PoliticsStand Up for Liberty!Funding LibertyLibertarian RenaissanceSurely We Can Do Better?Books on PhysicsPhysics OneElementary Lectures in Statistical MechanicsPhenomenology of Polymer Solution DynamicsComplete Tables for ‘Phenomenology of Polymer Solution Dynamics’

Book preview

A Sea of Stars Like Diamonds

George Phillies and

Jefferson Swycaffer, Editors

Copyright 2016 by the National Fantasy Fan Federation

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2016 by the National Fantasy Fan Federation. All rights, other than the right to distribute these works in this volume, are reserved to the original authors.

Cover design by Cedar Sanderson using ESA/Hubble images from the NASA Hubble Orbital Telescope. The title font is Gamaliel. The font for the author names, and the 75 years strap line is Centaur.

ESA/Hubble images are released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 international license (http//creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0).

Image credits: NASA, ESA, and H. Richer (University of British Columbia)

The image shows globular cluster NGC 6397 in the constellation Ara (the Altar).

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Table of Contents

The N3F 75th Anniversary Volume...George Phillies

N3F Short Story Contest…the 2016 Winners...Jefferson Swycaffer

The Contributed Tales...George Phillies

N3F Non-Periodical Publications...Jon D. Swartz, Ph.D., N3F Historian

The Bazaar of Forbidden Dreams...Sean Gilhooley

The Last Ordeal of James Willoughby...Jeff Spitzer

Fabiana's Fairy Godmother...Kristin Janz

Track Invasion...Deborah Rocheleau

The Rails That Bind...Sean Gilhooley

The Quarter Test...Angela Parson Myers

The Real World...Jeff Spitzer

Halloween Story...Angela Parson Myers

Victoria and the Peri...George Phillies

The Jewels in the Desert…Jefferson Swycaffer

Howard’s Dilemma...Kent McDaniel

Inconceivable...George Phillies

About the National Fantasy Fan Federation

A Sea of Stars Like Diamonds

The N3F 75th Anniversary Volume

George Phillies

Three-quarters of a century ago, sixty-four fen from across America came together to found a new organization, the National Fantasy Fan Federation. Some founders were or became famous writers and editors, including Damon Knight. Doc Smith, Doc Lowndes, Ray Bradbury, Donald Wollheim, and Cyril Kornbluth. Forry Ackerman became the greatest SF collector in the history of the universe. Other founders are less well known. Most have long since passed from the scene, to be honored in our memories. One founder is still with us.

Our original purposes were straightforward:

To unite all local fan clubs and solitary fans into a single organization capable of making single decisions representative of the majority.

To prevent confusion and misunderstanding among fans, and to prevent local groups or cliques from exerting disproportionate influence on fandom.

To sponsor and help finance worthy fan projects with the exception of subscription fanzines, or any projects not wholly amateur in intent.

To better conditions with fandom and the stf and fantasy field, by speaking approval or disapproval of outstanding conditions in a strong and united voice.

To provide an efficient administration of this federation, based on the democratic theory of self-government.

To encourage and promote the growth of local clubs and sectional federations, and to co-operate with and assist the said organizations whenever possible.

To formulate and put into effect all possible activities of present and future benefit of fandom.

Some of our purposes proved to be attainable. Others were more challenging. Our numbers and activities have waxed and waned. At apogee, the N3F had hundreds of active members. At perigee, only a single dues-paying member remained. Recent years have seen an increase in membership and activities; may that increase long endure!

In 1941, fantasy was an exotic hobby of the few, with fantasy widely defined to include science fiction, swords and sorcery, horror, and tales of the supernatural and the macabre. It is now 2016. Fantasy films dominate Hollywood. An entire television channel carries nothing but SF programs, and many SF programs are found on other channels. New media such as computer games and electronic novels transmit fantasy in ways that in 1941 were unimaginable--except by our founders.

It is seventy-five years later. In honor of this, our triaquarteriacentennial, our gold and diamond anniversary, we present this celebratory volume, A Sea of Stars Like Diamonds. We honor new writers, the winners of our Short Story Contest. We welcome stories from other Neffers. N3F Historian Jon Swartz gives us a history of N3F special publications.

N3F Short Story Contest…the 2016 Winners

An appreciation by Jefferson Swycaffer

The National Fantasy Fan Federation -- the N3F -- has for many years run an amateur short story contest. The late Don Franson was the contest’s long-time administrator. He passed the job along, so that the tradition continues.

Every year, a treasury of new stories is submitted. Beginning writers of all ages, from all parts of the world, send in their offerings, which never fail to be creative, thoughtful, inventive, often surprising, always moving, and always wonderfully original.

Here are a handful of the more notable among these stories:

The Bazaar of Forbidden Dreams by Sean Gillhoolley was a delightful and truly entertaining contribution to the cyberpunk genre of science fiction adventure stories. Adspace and Edge are fun protagonists, each a bit twisted in a cyberpunk kind of way...but how could they not be, living in an even more twisted world? The clowns are eerie and horrible; the fight scene is brilliant. The description of the bazaar itself was luscious and rich, just an absolute treat for the reader.

The Last Ordeal of James Willoughby by Jeff Spitzer is a strong, engaging, entertaining, even believable story. The adventures of the protagonist in his efforts to come to know the aliens made it a strong and very creditable contribution to the genre of First Contact stories. The aliens were very nicely developed, and the protagonist's explorations are extremely well portrayed.

Fabiana's Fairy Godmother by Kristin Janz is a wonderful -- although also somewhat depressing! -- story. The story's contrasts, between the harsh and ugly reality of poverty in a Brazilian slum, and the wide-eyed magical idealism of a fairy godmother, make the story truly shine. It is a superb example of the use of bathos as a dramatic tool, i.e., the grinding together of two very disparate dramatic tonalities. The story certainly wrings a number of strongly conflicting emotions from the reader, and accomplishes its purpose brilliantly.

Track Invasion by Deborah Rocheleau is a delight. It is a satire worthy of the best SF satirists; one can easily imagine Robert Sheckley or Ron Goulart having created this story. It's funny, and ironic, and fantastic -- the situation is clearly impossible, unstable in all respects, yet this doesn't matter. The point is the conflict between the protagonist and the very uncouth crowd of clients to whom he must cater. The brands of viands are also funny: pons dogs are particularly clever (and perhaps also a little nauseating.) The reader will laugh (while also feeling a little sick!) That's the brilliance of this story: it grates humor against horror, creating dramatic tension without catharsis.

The Rails That Bind by Sean Gillhoolley -- his second entry in this collection -- is set in the same universe as The Bazaar of Forbidden Dreams. The story relies heavily on foreign language phrases to indicate the anomie and culture-loss of the cyberpunk universe. This has been a conventional trope for a long time -- A Clockwork Orange was one pioneer. It is fun to see Adspace and Edge again, and the whole rail-riding motif was absolutely gripping. The action scenes are heart-pounding, and very cinematic – in that it is easy for the reader to visualize them!

The Contributed Tales

An appreciation by George Phillies

Jeff Spitzer’s second contribution is The Real World, a classic Appalachian ghost story. There is loving description of the forested wilds of rural eastern America. Are the ghosts fragments of the dreams of the gullible and the superstitious? Here is a pursuit of truth motivated by love, but sometimes truth is only visible by inference.

Debora Rocheleau’s second contribution is Green Ship, a tale of a vessel whose inexorable passage is measured by the chronicler, until it isn’t. Is measurement control? Some characters act; others are acted upon.

Angela Parson Myers favors us with two works. The Quarter Test is the test that is all too familiar to those of us who passed through Army basic training. How well made is your bed? And in this case, who made it? Halloween Story speaks of absentmindedness, found love, and a painful decision. Any number of travelers have found themselves trapped in the land of the fey folk, but that’s a two-way street.

From Kent McDaniel we have Howard’s Dilemma, a story of supernatural vengeance that manages to be utterly free of blood and gore. No one is eviscerated, but justice will be done.

Contest judge Jefferson Swycaffer gives an adventure of failure and adventure in a lost and exotic part of the world. The Jewels in the Desert is an escapade in the spirit of A. Merritt and H. Rider Haggard, whose works the hero invokes in his defense.

As closers, I contributed two of my own stories. Victoria and the Peri is an adventure for a young lady who steps forward to protect a friend, and finds herself in far deeper water than she anticipated. Inconceivable is future SF with psionics, a story that the late John W. Campbell might have enjoyed.

N3F Non-Periodical Publications

Jon D. Swartz, Ph.D.

N3F Historian

Of the hundreds of publications in which the National Fantasy Fan Federation (N3F) has been involved over the past 75 years, some were published by the N3F and others were sponsored in some manner when the N3F collaborated with others. Some of the most noteworthy publications in both categories are described herein. The many issues of The National Fantasy Fan, Tightbeam, and their predecessors -- and the various materials provided for new and prospective members -- have been omitted for obvious reasons.

An Early Hardcover Book

Those items that were published by the club included a hardcover book: David H. Keller’s 1948 Utopian fantasy novel, The Sign of the Burning Hart: A Tale of Arcadia. The N3F has been included in SF reference books solely on the basis of publishing this book.

Dr. Keller (1880 – 1966) was the first psychiatrist to write science fiction (SF) for publication in genre magazines. He was very generous to fanzine editors during his lifetime, contributing free material for them to use in their zines. Keller was a prolific author, also writing under the pseudonyms of Monk Smith, Matthew Smith, Amy Worth, Henry Cecil, Cecilia Henry, and Jacobus Hubelaire.

N3F Fandbooks

Other noteworthy club publications included a series of N3F fandbooks -- A Key to the Terminology of Science-Fiction Fandom (Fandbook No. 1), The Amateur Press Associations in Science-Fiction Fandom (Fandbook No. 2), Some Historical Facts About Science-Fiction Fandom (Fandbook No. 3), and The Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund (Fandbook No. 4), all published in the early 1960s. The authors of these four publications were Donald Franson (Fandbooks No. 1 and No. 3), Bob Lichtman (Fandbook No. 2), and Len Moffatt & Ron Ellik (Fandbook No. 4).

More recently, three additional fandbooks have been published: Pseudonyms of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Authors (2010), The Hugo Awards for Best Novel (2014), and The Nebula Awards for Best Novel (2016), all three compiled by the club's current historian.

Title Changes on SF Books

Science Fiction Title Changes appeared in 1965. This N3F publication covered SF books published under two or more titles. It was printed by offset, compiled by Michael Viggiano and Donald Franson, and was 47 numbered pages in length.

A Club Cookbook

A club cookbook was titled Neffer a Bad Batch (2005), ran twenty pages, and consisted of six legal-size sheets. It was divided into three categories: Punch . . ., . . . & Cookies, and . . . & Cakes & Stuff. Lola Andrew, the club’s secretary at the time, was the editor. The four pages in the middle of the publication, labeled A, B, C, and D, consisted of a description of the N3F and a membership application blank.

SF Art

The National Fantasy Fan Federation Presents A Portfolio of Illustrations by Virgil Finlay - First Series, 1946. Illustrations were reproduced from Famous Fantastic Mysteries Magazine, and the portfolio was edited by Walter Dunkelberger, club president at the time. Contents included six vintage Finlay prints, unbound and suitable for framing.

Hannes Bok Illustration Index, 1970. An index of the artwork of Bok, published by the Collector's Bureau of the N3F by C. W. Ned Brooks, Jr. The third, revised edition was published in 1994, and was edited by Brooks and Don Martin.

Some of the notable publications over the years in which the N3F has collaborated with others have been as follows:

1944 Fanzine Yearbook

This slim yearbook was published by Le Zombie and the N3F by the fanzine's editor, Bob Tucker, who was also a club member at the time (and former president). It was a catalog of amateur magazines published by the fantasy fan journalists. The fanzines are listed in alphabetical order and pertinent information about each is included.

A Fan Directory

The 1950 Fan Directory was edited by N3F member Len Moffatt. The Directory was sponsored by the N3F and Forrest J Ackerman's Fantasy Foundation. It was published in August, 1950, and had information on 404 fans, 51 of whom were listed as being female. The Directory consisted of thirty-six numbered pages, not counting introductory material and covers.

In addition to the United States, fans were listed from Australia, England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, France, and the Canal Zone.

An Early Anthology

Geep!: The Book of the National Fantasy Fan Federation was a 135-page paperback anthology of fannish writing and collected fiction, poetry, and articles. Contributors included Andrew J. Nagel, Jack Robbins, George Phillies, Ray R. House, Ron A. Nyren, Stacey Potts, David L. Travis, and others. Although it was not an official N3F publication, it was produced by N3F members.

Geep! editor Rose Secrest and her husband, Michael Peralta (who contributed a short play they wrote to the book), both joined the N3F in the mid-1980s. Secrest wrote that she had hoped the N3F would be an outlet for her writing; but, when that did not happen, she created this anthology and paid to have it published. Later in her writing career, Secrest co-edited the anthology Leviathan 2: The Legacy of Boccaccio (1998), and wrote the critical work Glorificemus: A Study of the Fiction of Walter M. Miller, Jr. (2002).

A Sea of Stars Like Diamonds

This year, in order to celebrate the club's 75th year of existence, George Phillies, the club president, has edited this original fanthology of stories by club members. The title reflects the fact that it is the club's diamond anniversary. The objective of this fanthology is to showcase the work of winners of the N3F's fiction contests as well as the writing of other members of the club. Associate Editor of the fanthology is Jefferson Swycaffer, who is currently in charge of the N3F's short story contests.

The Bazaar of Forbidden Dreams

Sean Gilhooley

One: Sufian Adspace Gandapur

Getting involved with the rich businessman was a bad idea, but I can only blame myself. I had a bad feeling when he approached us at that lame Rage, but the money blinded me. I unloaded those drugs fast, and five grand should have been enough, but I was always a bit greedy. When the barriers were thrown up around Manhattan we should have dumped him. For that I blame the new kid. Well, I guess I went along with it as well. A grand a day is good money, but I’m not sure it’s worth it.

The people after the suit are heavy hitters. It’s not that they scare me, but it seems an awful lot of risk for the reward. I guess that’s all in the past now. The hermit hacker isn’t that much further, especially if we take a kamay there. We should have the rich guy delivered to his destination and be back on the tracks before sunrise.

I lifted the suits’ wallet when he climbed onto my board for the first time. I like to know whom I’m dealing with. Tom Concord. Impressive address. I know that building is serious money. Owned by the Chinese, and they are pretty picky about who can live in their buildings. I don’t think he’s American. He has a slight accent. British I think, though not one that stands out. It could be he grew up in a former colony. A good education system is one of the few benefits the British left behind. It could be Hong Kong. He’s a lawyer. Corporate contracts according to his business card.

I gave him a pretty thorough pat down, at least as thorough as I could without him noticing. I’m not sure what he’s carrying that’s valuable enough to explain the level of pursuit that’s been thrown at us. Sure, his suit is worth a small fortune. I think his pants alone are worth more than our crew earned tonight, but no one sets up a dragnet like this for fancy duds. His wearable computer is worth quite a bit. I can tell that. It’s hard to be certain, but I think they are Rose Coloured Glasses. Those go for a couple hundred grand, but useless to anyone but the registered user. Not enough to justify the expense to catch him. It could be he’s lying to us. He seems good at lying. I doubt even I would pick up on it. He must be great at poker.

He reminds me of this guy I knew back in Razmak. You couldn’t trust a word the guy said, but he was hooked in, so you constantly found yourself dealing with him. I took care of him before leaving, that’s for sure. They’re probably still looking for me in Pakistan. I’m not stupid. I saw what was coming and got out while I could. Taking care of that guy was probably not the smartest thing to do, but I wanted to send them a message. Mess with me or my family and none of them are safe, not even the top dogs.

Our situation has gone to hell. I would ditch Tom in a second, but Edge wants to bring Streak into our crew and Streak’s being professional and sticking with him. She’s no fighter, but she has guts. She can learn how to fight, so long as she survives, so I guess we have to go help her out. I only agree because Edge wants me to. I’d do anything for her. I know she has my back. Most people are quick to say they have your back, but she’s shown it, many times. She’s also brave. I remember the first time we met. I know I looked a sight, covered in blood and viscera from those two organ leggers. Parasites. It was a pleasure to carve them up, but seeing Edge there, ready to come to my assistance, really gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling.

I’ve only been in New York for eight months and I have to admit that I find this city very exciting. There are plenty of cities around the world where you can eviscerate someone who challenges you, literally, but only a handful that also provide a wonderful tourism industry. New York has it all – first class hotels, the latest theatric performances, the finest shops and boutiques, and some of the deadliest gangs of psychopaths on the planet. I’ve killed more people in the last eight months than in my previous thirteen years in Pakistan, though, to be perfectly fair, I didn’t kill anyone until I was nine.

Edge uses her drone to scout the station area. Getting jumped by a